GRAND RAPIDS -- One person was dead and several people were being treated for smoke inhalation today after a fire broke out in a sixth-floor room of the Grandview Apartments, a senior citizens complex at 1925 Bridge Street NW.

The resident there was found dead, said Capt. Kurt Barager of the Grand Rapids Fire Department.

The victim's name has not been released nor has the cause of the five-alarm blaze.

The upper-floor residents of the eight-story, 193-unit building were evacuated in the aftermath of the fire, reported at 1:05 p.m.

Several people were given oxygen by fire-rescue personnel.

The residents, many of them with walkers or in wheelchairs, lined up along the sidewalk along Bridge Street NW or walked across the street to St. John's United Church of Christ.

Residents of the complex's four upper-most floors were told they would not be able to return to their homes this evening.

Caroline Clunk, communications coordinator for the Red Cross of Greater Grand Rapids, said residents of the 80 units would be put up in local hotels or an emergency shelter.

By late afternoon, Red Cross volunteers were making plans to feed dinner to some 50 people who were gathered in the church's basement.

Debra Little, who lived across the hall from the victim's apartment, said she smelled smoke and turned on her fan shortly after noon.

"Then, I heard a huge crash," she said. "That was the window blowing out.
Then all the smoke began pouring in."

Little, a Grandview resident for 18½ years, said she and others walked down the stairwell.

The 53-year-old held back tears as she worried about Kiwi, her Senegal parrot, and Tigger, her cat, who were left behind.

"Those little guys are important to me, but they're all I have. They're my family," she said.

Nick Mavis, a resident of nearby 1839 Bridge St. NW, said he saw smoke and flames pouring out of the sixth-floor apartment that faces Union High School.

"It was going pretty good," he said.

"I'm surprised it stayed confined to the room."

Grandview Apartments, which is owned and operated by the Grand Rapids Housing Commission, first opened in 1978.

Residents said it was the first fatal fire in recent memory at the complex.